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August 2023
Omar Zarabi
It’s one thing to have your security strategy locked down from a technical standpoint, but when you’re dealing with human end users, things always get tricky.
Unpredictable human behaviors are perhaps the majority of the reason cybersecurity strategies exist. They are technical safeguards against nebulous, fallible actions. They are our best efforts to cut down the 74% rate of human involvement in breaches, and they cannot fall short.
Here are some ways end users create the need for oversight and security management, and some best practices in response.
As was noted above, the Verizon 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report cited that a significant 74% of breaches can still be traced back to the human element.
Without meaning to, end users can engage in unsafe online practices that pose unnecessary risk. These include:
Errors like these can leave an enterprise open to ransomware attacks, Business Email Compromise (BEC), data breaches and long-term exploits, especially when factoring in challenges of remote work. In fact, they represent the majority of ways in which companies get hacked. In turn, tightening up risk on these fronts would stop the majority of subsequent successful attacks and close a big window through which hackers are getting through - us.
It doesn’t take a cybercriminal or malicious insider to bring harm to an organization. End User Risk can have unforeseen and far-reaching consequences for any company.
They include:
Financial fallout resulting from cyber incidents
Loss of customer trust and reputational damage
Compliance and legal consequencesLoss of productivity due to operational disruptions
Threat actors are finding it hard to get around technological defenses, so attacking at the weak point (human interaction) is often their best bet. The more end-user behavior is noted, managed and trained, the less these kinds of consequences will occur.
While controlling human nature is impossible, correct preparation and improvement isn’t.
Best practices include:
Establishing clear security policies and guidelines for end users
Enforcing strong password practices and multi-factor authentication
Limiting user privileges and access rights Implementing web filtering and content control mechanisms
Monitoring and logging user activities for detection and response
Continuously training and testing end users on new and existing threats
Additionally, security policies and controls need to be put in place to catch the messy exploits that will inevitably get by us, and employee training can help bring these numbers down. With the help of AI-powered tools, ransomware gangs are spinning up more and more exploits. Companies need comparable tools to keep up.
These include:
Knowbe4 | You can’t stop a dangerous online habit you don’t know exists. KnowBe4 end user training makes employees aware of what they’ll face online, teaching them how to avoid “human hacking” scams and not fall prey.
Cisco Duo | The end-goal of phishing is to steal credentials and achieve unauthorized access into network accounts. Duo is a zero-trust access management platform that secures all user authentications, from any device, anywhere.
Ultimately, zero trust is the future of cybersecurity and securing end-user interactions may be the final frontier. Predicting and mitigating what humans will do is challenging business, and best-in-class training and access management platforms are key for accomplishing that aim.
Navigating end-user behavioral patterns can be hard, but when you know what to look for and how to leverage the tools at your disposal, it just becomes another vector to lock down. It can be done.
Port53 provides cybersecurity consulting and a portfolio of best-in-class industry solutions to get your organization zero trust ready. We’ll meet you where you are and guide you as you journey to full cybersecurity maturity.
